President’s Higher Education report a slap in the face of our students

23 November 2016

The release of the interim Presidential report on the Higher Education fee crisis is a slap in the face of the thousands of young South Africans who hope to access Higher Education and create a better future for themselves and their families.

The “Interim report of the Commission into the feasibility of fee-free Higher Education and Training” is a mere eight pages long and contains no evidence of experts consulted in drawing up the report. The report essentially says that there is no money and lots of work needed. This we already know.

The report, which the government claimed would provide much needed direction on the current crisis, lacks any firm commitments and leadership. It merely restates the obvious and only confirms the ANC-led government is utterly rudderless and without any clue as to how to fix their self-made crisis.

Higher Education is in a state of emergency and requires decisive leadership. At the heart of this crisis is the chronic under-funding of Higher Education over the last decade. This has resulted in Universities being forced to rely on student fees as a major source of income, making it more difficult for poor students to access tertiary education.

The future of millions of young people hangs in the balance in the absence of viable long-term solutions to the fee crisis and this report does not provide any answers to the students, lecturers and the many more young people wishing to enter Higher Education.

The DA stands firm in our belief that no qualifying student should be denied tertiary education just because they are poor.

The real blame must be placed at the door of the ANC government which has allowed this crisis to take root by under-funding our universities and forgetting about poor students.

If the government does not provide more funding for higher education, through increased state subsidies to universities, and more support for NSFAS, fee increases will continue in the future, as will the cyclical unrest associated with it. Similarly, by not providing any answers, government is merely allowing the crisis to become bigger and bigger, until we see universities burning again next year.

Issued by Belinda Bozzoli, DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education and Training, 23 November 2016